REPORT FROM RIC FLAIR SIGNING WITH PHOTOS
- 07/16/2008 (2:03:23 am)
- Georgiann Makropoulos
……
I work around the Carolinas as a ring announcer and have had the chance to attend a few autograph sessions in that time. The one yesterday at F.Y.E. in Concord, North Carolina was one of the more chaotic ones that I have been to. Nobody really seemed to know how things were being handled.
First off, wwe.com advertised the signing as being at 3pm. Over the weekend, I checked the F.Y.E. website, and they were reporting it to start at noon. I called F.Y.E. and they told me that, in fact, it was actually noon. By Monday night, wwe.com finally changed the starting time to noon.
I arrived at F.Y.E. at 11:15am. There was a decent sized line (maybe 50-60 people). I went inside, purchased my copy of Flair's DVD and was given a wristband. I wasn't told what the band was for, but put it on. I noticed that quite a few people ahead of me in line, and eventually more behind me did not have these wristbands.
I heard people in line asking if Flair was only signing his DVD or if he would sign other things. Nobody with F.Y.E. really had an answer for that. I figured, "What is the worst that Flair would do if you asked him to sign, maybe his book? He says no?"
Around 11:45, people from WWE were filming the line that had formed, trying to get people's reactions (I imagine this will get used either on Smackdown or WWE.com to hype the Flair DVD like they would a Diva being in Playboy).
Flair arrived around 12:05pm and almost as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared for about ten minutes. He made his way out to his table around 12:15pm and was on his phone when he sat down.
The lines moved pretty quickly and I made my way to the front of the line around 12:30pm. By that time, I had noticed that Flair was signing just about anything given to him, but tried to keep it to one item per person for the most part. Nothing was really being personalized, but since they got the late start, I wasn't really surprised. I went up, shook his hand, he signed my copy of the DVD, I thanked him, we took a picture, and I shook his hand and thanked him again.
I noticed that the guys filming were doing interviews with people as they went through the line. I had no real desire to be interviewed, but I did have an odd request for the guys. When they finished an interview, I talked to the man doing the interviews and told him I had an odd request for him. I asked if I could get my picture taken holding the WWE microphone. He seemed confused, but when I explained that I was a ring announcer on the indy scene and have always wanted to do it, he ok'ed it and took my picture, which I've included in this e-mail.
I should note that the ones wearing wristbands were put through the line extremely fast, while ones without the band were told that they couldn't meet Flair. Nothing was posted anywhere about wristbands being needed to meet Flair and I saw a lot of people leave disappointed.
I can't complain about meeting Flair or getting a chance to hold a WWE microphone, but the whole thing seemed very unorganized and could've been done a lot smoother.
Brett Wolverton
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